125g Tank Water change INFO?

This is a discussion on 125g Tank Water change INFO? within the Beginner Freshwater Aquarium forums, part of the Freshwater Fish and Aquariums category; -->
Hi, I currently have a 30g tank that i do a 20% water change weekly with two 5g buckets. I plan on getting a ...

Hi, I currently have a 30g tank that i do a 20% water change weekly with two 5g buckets. I plan on getting a 125g tank and was curious as to how i would perform weekly water changes. Is there an easier way then just sitting out five 5g buckets and declorinating it?

You could buy a python water hose to siphon water out/in. On my 125 I use a garden hose and a powerhead to pump water into a drain in my house. Then I attach the hose to a faucet to fill the tank. Simple.

You could buy a python water hose to siphon water out/in. On my 125 I use a garden hose and a powerhead to pump water into a drain in my house. Then I attach the hose to a faucet to fill the tank. Simple.

Add enough dechlorinator to the tank before you use the hose to refill.
You could draw how ever much water you normally remove with five gallon bucket. When you have removed your 30 to 50 percent, you can place a piece of scotch tape on the side of the tank out of site and place a mark on the tape with sharpie.This way you will alway's know how much water you removed, and how much dechlorinator to add to the tank before re-filling.
Filling with Aqueon water changer or Python, allows you to adjust temp before filling the tank. This is more difficult with just garden hose hooked to faucet unless you have two people.
New water added should be close to same temp as that in the aquarium to prevent stress.(different fishes adapt to temp changes differently) Not sure how those who use garden hose adjust temp after hose begins filling . In my view you would need to run water over your hand to see that it's not too cool, or too warm, and then shut the water off while you take the hose to the tank and hope you have right temp when you turn the faucet back on (hot cold mix) for re-filling.
Aqueon or Python will allow you to adjust temp BEFORE the water enter's the tank.

What I do is run the faucet first to see what temperatures come out and then hook my hose to the faucet. I actually prefer cooler water changes because it induces spawning behavior in my cichlids and my silver dollars. As I am filling the tank I put prime water conditioner in the water. I put the amount of conditioner rated for the amount of water I take out. For instance I usually do 50% water changes once or twice a week so I treat about 75 gallons of water when adding prime if that makes sense.

IDK what kind of fish you have but my fish are fairly hardy so I slight temperature change isn't going to kill them. I do try to make sure the temperature of the water I am adding isn't too extreme

I have a 60g and a 10g in the living room.
For removal, I just insert the gravel siphon hose into a standard 5/8" garden hose that I run outside to a flower bed. For the refill, I use 2 gal 'mop' buckets (one fills while I'm dumping the other). I use Prime as a conditioner (5 drops/2g). I wouldn't like the idea of adding [extra] conditioner to the tank and then adding chlorinated water as I think (even though others report 'success' doing it) that this represents a risk to the stability of the tank. In my case, I have well water w/no chlorine, but I still use a conditioner and prefer the amounts to be precise and added/mixed prior to adding to the tank. Admittedly, my wwc is only about 30g. If I had larger or more tanks, I guess I'd use 5g pails.
Note: With tank temps of 76-78F, I'm also very careful to ensure that the water I add is 75-80F.

The objective is to replace 'soiled' water with clean, fresh water - the condition and temperature should be such that there is no upset to the environment as could be the case with untreated or thermally unstable water - just my $.02.